Sweetums
.]] Sweetums is a large, hairy ogre who towers above his human and Muppet co-stars. His bulldog-like lower jaw, thick eyebrows, shabby brown shirt, and threatening expression belie his more or less genial nature. ''The Frog Prince'' Sweetums first appeared on the TV special The Frog Prince in 1971 as Taminella's ogre. In this fairytale story, Sir Robin the Brave comes across Sweetums in the woods and enters into battle. Just as the handsome prince is about to defeat the monster, the witch Taminella appears and turns him into Robin the Frog. The ogre coos over the "cute froggy-frog", and Taminella tells her darling "Sweetums" that he can have the frog...for breakfast. Robin escapes and makes his way to the King's castle, where he befriends Princess Melora. Taminella, who has insinuated herself into the King's confidence, captures the frog and brings him to the dungeon. She returns him to the care of Sweetums, who plans to eat the frog. Robin and Kermit trick the simple-minded ogre by singing him a lullaby, "Sleep, Sweetums", which easily puts him to sleep. While Sweetums is asleep, Kermit pretends to be Taminella and tells Sweetums to open the cage and let the frog go. Once Robin is free, Sweetums wakes up and realizes that he's been tricked. "It's yummy-yummy time!" he bellows, as he tries to catch the terrified frogs. The ogre sings a war song, "Sweetums", as he swings his massive club around the dungeon. Robin and Kermit hop just out of his reach. Furious, Sweetums smashes at a stone pillar, which crumbles -- and knocks another pillar down on his head. The monster collapses, unconscious, and the frogs escape, and then proceed to stop the coronation, destroy Taminella and her power, and break her evil spell, which helped Princess Melora get her proper speech pattern back. Sweetums reappears at the conclusion of the story, in the crowd of Peasants singing the praises of the new queen. ''The Muppet Movie'' Sweetums had a featured part in The Muppet Movie; his quest to reach Hollywood parallels the Muppets' journey. When Kermit and his friends first meet Sweetums, he's working as a jack (the job, not the name) for Mad Man Mooney, a shady used car dealer who treats the ogre badly. Sweetums takes a shine to the Muppets and helps them swindle the swindler, swatting a fly over a price tag and changing the price from $1195 to $11.95. Grateful, Kermit asks Sweetums if he wants to join them on the trip to Hollywood. Sweetums runs off, and Kermit thinks he's not interested -- but, in fact, he's gone to get his carpet bag, and he's disappointed to find that the Muppets have driven off without him. He follows Kermit's trail for the rest of the movie, at one point tracking them through the Bogen County Fair. He finally catches up with them at the end of the movie, bursting through the screen and joining his friends in Hollywood. Performing Sweetums Jerry Nelson performed Sweetums for his first appearance in The Frog Prince, with the character's voice dubbed by Carl Banas. After that, Richard Hunt made the character his own. Hunt gave life to Sweetums throughout the run of The Muppet Show and in the first two theatrical Muppet films. Beginning around 1987, John Henson began to take on the puppeteering duties of Sweetums with the dialogue being looped by Richard Hunt, due to Hunt's quickly deteriorating health. After Hunt's death in 1992, Henson became the full-time performer of the character, appearing at tributes and other events in the 1990s. In 1996, Henson had his first full-fledged screen credit in the role for his work in Muppet Treasure Island. Sweetums' performer uses his right arm to either operate the mouth or the right arm. When the right arm moves, the mouth can't move on its own, and vice versa. Usually, whenever Sweetums moves his mouth, his right arm is pinned to his body or stuffed and hung to just swing freely. The eyes and eyebrows move by remote control. Muppet-Vision 3-D combines the work of more than 3 performers to bring Sweetums to life in the show. Richard Hunt voiced the character in the production, while John Henson performed the puppet in the on-screen footage. Additionally a trained Disney Park cast member is needed to perform the character (to Hunt's pre-recorded audio) in each show as Sweetums comes out into the theater. Jim Henson: The Works commented on the work involved in filming Sweetums' 3-D paddleball trick, explaining that: The performer can only see out by looking through the puppet's mouth.Eastman, Ben Muppets from Space: The Making of Muppet Movie Magic page 22 Casting history Main performers *Richard Hunt: The Muppet Show (1976) - Muppet*Vision 3D (1991 voice only) *John Henson: Muppet*Vision 3D (1991 suit only) and Muppet Treasure Island (1996) - The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) *Matt Vogel: Give a Day. Get a Disney Day. (2009),Muppetmindset interview with Matt Vogel - present Alternate performers *Jerry Nelson: The Frog Prince (1971 (Muppeteer only)) Muppet RaceMania (2000 voice only) *Carl Banas: The Frog Prince (1971 (voice only)) *Robert Mills: The Jim Henson Hour (1989 - episode 107) *David Rudman: The Cosby Show (1990 - Episode 138 Cliff's Nightmare) *Noel MacNeal: A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) The Muppets Take the Bowl (2017 puppetry only) *Victor Yerrid: Family Feud (2001), Barnes & Noble promotion (2003), Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony Episode 13 *Ed Christie: filling in for John Henson on a few occasions Yerrid, Victor An Interview with Victor Yerrid. The Muppet Newsflash. August 2007. Filmography *''The Frog Prince'' *''The Muppet Show'' **episode 104 **episode 105 **episode 107 **episode 108 **episode 114 **episode 115 **episode 116 **episode 119 **episode 204 **episode 206 **episode 212 **episode 217 **episode 222 **episode 223 **episode 224 **episode 307 **episode 308 **episode 314 **episode 318 **episode 323 **episode 324 **episode 411 **episode 507 **episode 518 *The Muppets Go Hollywood *''The Muppet Movie'' *''The Great Muppet Caper'' *''Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years'' *''The Jim Henson Hour'' **episode 107 (performed by Rob Mills) *''The Cosby Show'' **"Cliff's Nightmare" (performed by David Rudman) *''Muppet*Vision 3D'' *''Muppet Treasure Island'' *''Muppets Tonight'' **''episode 206'' *''Muppets from Space'' *''Family Feud'' *''The Muppet Show Live'' *The Hollywood Walk of Fame *''It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie'' *''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' *''Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony'' *D23 Expo *''Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.'' *''Makeover: Home Edition Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' *"The Muppet Show Theme" music video *''The Muppets'' Video game appearances *''Muppet RaceMania'' *''Muppets Party Cruise'' Book appearances *''The Muppet Show Book'' *''It's The Muppet Show!'' *''The Muppet Show Comic Book'' *''Robin Hood'' *''Fozzie's Big Book of Sidesplitting Jokes'' *''Two for the Show'' *''Bo Saves the Show'' *''Muppet Manners'' *''Muppets at Sea'' *''The Muppets Go Camping'' *''If You Were Kermit'' *''Muppet Time'' *''The Muppet Show Comic Book'' *''Muppet Robin Hood'' *''Muppet Peter Pan'' *''Muppet Robin Hood'' Sources External links * Sweetums on Muppet Wiki Category:Full-bodied Characters Category:Puppet Characters Category:Muppet Characters Category:Muppet Monsters Category:Character Libbodeairs